Just as there are good deals in the world, there will also be bad ones. Not everyone knows how valuable your product or service is so they might try to pay you too little (or pay you nothing at all), and there are also those who try to take advantage of the weak and desperate.

Unfortunately, some of us are desperate to sell and some are too polite to reject other people’s terrible offers.

It doesn’t have to be that way. We shouldn’t be compelled to accept bad deals out of politeness. This article is about learning that lesson.

So what is short selling or shorting anyway? While most experienced or veteran investors know that this is how you profit from a declining stock price, not a lot of beginners know how it works so we’ll discuss the basics of short selling here.

There’s one thing you need to save for before you start investing, and that is an emergency fund. Problems happen all the time and a little extra free cash saved specifically for emergencies can get us out a lot of terrible financial situations. Aside from that, it lets us pursue excellent opportunities as well.

Here are a few reasons why you need an emergency fund. (Just think about the last time you thought about these things, and what you would do if any of these ever happen.)

Just like applying for a new job or starting a new business, investing always carries risk. While you can earn lots of money from well-chosen investments, you can also choose bad ones by mistake and lose a lot. Do you prefer safety and lower volatility, or do you prefer riskier and more volatile investments that can generate more income?

Here’s a short guide on how to choose investments based on your risk tolerance.

Disclaimer: Do your research! No matter how “safe” or “good” an investment is, it’s worthless if you get scammed because you didn’t study what you’re buying!

By the way, if you don’t know what the basic investments are, we suggest that you read these articles first:

Credit cards and personal loans are both good solutions for financing regular expenses as well as unexpected ones. Both products are basically unsecured loans that do not require collateral backing, and you can repay them over time.